ABSTRACT
The Pluralists and Atomists did not deny the Eleatic concept of reality as an unchanging unity; the Eleatic philosophers had demonstrated that this view of reality was the only logical one. That both Empedocles and Anaxagoras are called Pluralists do not indicate that either was a follower of the other, or that they were members of the same school of thought. Empedocles was born in Agrigentum in Sicily, probably around the middle of the fifth century BC. Dating his life is difficult; Aristotle reported that he was slightly younger than Anaxagoras but began his philosophical inquiry earlier. Some aspects of Empedocles' metaphysics clearly show the influence of Parmenides' philosophy. The description of the four roots as inert, unchanging, and eternal were efforts to meet the Eleatic standard of reality. The absence of a void is in keeping with Eleatic thought. The Atomists accepted the Eleatic teaching that the real must be homogeneous, uncreated, unalterable, and indestructible.
